Iam new to Puppy.
I recently installed 5.2.7 to HDD on my old Dell CSx.
I started off with Seamonkey, because it is not very different from Firefox and I use that on my desktop.
But it kept falling over - even had problems sending error reports.
So I decided to try Opera. This also crashed, but gave a more helpful report.
The report says that Opera is getting a SIGSEGV message.
I understand that this is something to do with addressing.

Can anyone tell me the best way to approach this problem, please?
Should I be looking at hardware or software?
Is there a way of testing hardware under Puppy?
Will upgrading to 5.2.8 make any difference?
What else could I try?

its been a while since I did this, and am working from memory on a non-puppy machine (so please forgive any ommissions)

If you have windows on this machine, be sure to run defragment first--otherwise bad things can happen

start the computer
at the puppy logo, hit f2 and then type puppy pfix=ram
you may have to reset your keyboard choice, etc

once puppy starts, look for gparted partition manager ( I think its under "system"

start gparted.
you will get a graphical interface that shows your harddrive as a slider. I think you click "partition" create new. and then tell it how much space to give. Generally, you give it about 2x's your ram, so in your case about 500. I think its probably good to have this partition near the back (right side on the slider) part of your harddrive. When given the choice of what type of format for the partition, select linux swap. click all of the appropriate "ok's" to make it happen.

Let everything run for a bit.
Shut down puppy. It will ask if you want a new save file. Say no.

restart puppy normally. It should automatically detect and use the swap file. the way to see if it is there is to click the console button and type "htop" press return
This should show all your running processes . at the top will show your cpu usage, memory (ram) and swp (swap)

basically swap acts like a page file in windows, moving stuff from ram to your harddrive as needed so ram heavy applications like browsers don't crash.

Also, on your older machine, you might consider using Wary or "2.14 classic pup. " Both are fully functional versions of puppy that are aimed towards working better on older slower machines.
http://puppylinux.org/wikka/Wary
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=42553

Thanks sfeeley.
I have a 10GB disk that I set up as one partitiom.
Puppy now resides on this partition. There is no Windows partition.
gparted does not allow me to resize or create a new partition.
Do I have any other option but to start over?

Does not a swapfile work as well as a awap partition? Is the swap partition faster or more reliable or what?

sorry I know too little and I have 1GB so I do trust that 256 is on the low side.

The Devs of Lupu525 tried to made that one to cope with only 256MB but that is if one don't open too many tabs and so on.

Firefox and Seamonkey easily get bogged down due to flash wanting to log every falsh file and the url and them keep that in memory and update it so you should try to find the old threads where them tested to make that big file to get deleted when one had the need to keep low memory requirement.

Them wrote a lot about it so try to find those threads. use the search I link to that one is better than the search in the forum.

Latest Firefox Beta 7.0 something is better at memory management than the older ones so try to read the threads how to upgrade to that one._________________I use Google Search on Puppy Forum
not an ideal solution though

You can do what muggins suggested. I'm not really sure if there's any performance difference between a partition and file, so that may be the best since my suggestion didn't work.

although . . .
. . . if you did want to make a partition: I may have left something out of my earlier instructions. Boot from CD ( <-- I forgot this ) and then at the initial splash be sure to to hit f2 then type "puppy pfix=ram " ( <--maybe you forgot this?)

Also, I assumed (perhaps incorrectly) that you had done a "frugal" install. I'm not sure what happens if you did a "full" install.

(and I'll reiterate my earlier suggestion to try out one of the other puppies I suggested. I run classic pup on an old laptop with 256ram and it works quite well)

What you are describing about Seamonkey and Opera you should not be seeing. You may have done something wrong in the way you installed Puppy or how you installed Seamonkey or Opera. Make sure you get the browsers from Quickpet (on the desktop) or Puppy Package Manager.

I would start fresh and use Gparted to set up your hard drive.
To use Gparted:
Boot with the Puppy live CD
At the Puppy boot screen hit F2 key.
Use the boot option puppy pfix=ram.
This keeps the hard drive from being mounted.
Hard drive can not be mounted for Gparted to work.

If you are only putting Puppy on computer:
Run Gparted.
delete everything on hard drive. Start new.
Make one partition of 1GB to 2GB formatted as a Linux swap partition.
Make a second partition from what is left formatted ext3. (flag as boot)
Install Puppy to the ext3 partition.

Look over this info to see how you want to install Puppy.
There are guides on how to do different installs of Puppy.
Ways to install Puppy:
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=60302_________________I have found, in trying to help people, that the things they do not tell you, are usually the clue to solving the problem.
When I was a kid I wanted to be older.... This is not what I expected

Does not a swapfile work as well as a awap partition? Is the swap partition faster or more reliable or what?

I've been told a swap partition is better than a swap file, though I couldn't tell you in what ways. However, if you don't want to mess with the partitioning of your drives (such as when you're using a Frugal install over an existing system setup, like Windows), you may well want to use a swap file. It's just another file on the HD, as far as Windows will be concerned... a likely large file, but still, just another file. _________________[ Puppy 4.3.1 JP, Frugal install | 1GB RAM | 1.3GB swap ] * [ Puppy Precise 5.7.1 JP, Frugal install ]
In memory of our beloved American Eskimo puppy (1995-2010) and black Lab puppy (1997-2011).

Thanks Guys!
I have followed Muggins' advice and created a swap-file.
After opening several tabs in Opera, I was able to see that RAM was all in use and the system had started to use some of the swap-file.
So it looks like everything is running well and I shall continue using Puppy as it is, unless I find a compelling reason to change.
But I will bear all the other advicce in mind, in case I need it at a later date.
I think we can safely say - PROBLEM SOLVED.
Thanks again for coming to my aid so swiftly.
Best regards, Mike.

I have finally taken sfeely's advice and am now using Wary 5.2.2.
This is very fast and stable on my old Dell Latitude CSx - Pentium III - 256MB RAM.
It is interesting to note that the machine doesn't get so hot as it used to!
Can't say I am crazy about the appearance of the desktop, but I can live with it because everything else is so good.
Thanks again for everyone's help.

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